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Thursday, 30 October 2014

As many of you know, for the past year I
have been coordinating a project to catalogue our local cemetery. I’m delighted,
relieved, pleased to say that the year is almost over. This weekend I’m holding
a presentation to celebrate our achievements and, as I jot them down in
preparation for my speech, I’m proud to say that the outcomes far outstrip the
aims. In fact, had anyone suggested at the outset that we would get this much
work done, I would have been quite ‘negative’ with them.

We now have information boards at the
cemetery. These include plans of all the plots. There are row markers and small
plaques for every unmarked grave…

And more than that, we now have a website
with all the basic information that anyone might need to know about the
cemetery…

And much more than that, the website
contains a record for every burial with data about that person and search
facilities. It is now a fully functioning genealogical website…

And even more than that, the website
contains many researched stories about the lives led by a number of the people
buried there. This is why we called the project The Lives Behind the Stones.
We’ve managed to gather a fair cross-section showing contributions made to the
local community, to the city, in some cases to the country. There are contributions
to commerce, celebrations of scientific developments and, sadly, many moving stories
of refugees and evacuees who sought shelter here in Leicester.

I’m sorry you can’t all come to the
presentation but, if you’ve not looked at the website recently, you might like
to see the finished product and discover what I’ve been up to all year. You'll find it here.

Thanks to my team and to all the volunteers
who have worked so hard and, of course, many thanks to the Heritage
Lottery people who have funded the work and supported us during the year.

Friday, 24 October 2014

The family know to keep out of my way,
It’s the end of October again.
If you ask me the time, I won’t know what to say.
Greenwich Meantime has messed with my brain.

The Sunday fiasco begins with a groan.
Is it eight o’clock, seven or nine?
My alarm clock apparently changed on its own.
I’m just grateful my watch is still mine.

It feels like it’s lunchtime but no one is sure.
Am I early or am I too late?
I’ve decided a real early night is the cure
Cause my body clock’s in such a state.

This is not just my way of saying that the clocks go back this Sunday. It truly is how I feel. I obviously have a very sensitive body clock. It’s a good job I don’t have to do regular commutes to the US!

Sunday, 19 October 2014

I've been doing a bit of yoga recently, trying to clear my head, put some good thoughts there and remove some of the worries. This has got me thinking about our thoughts and our memories. What makes memories linger in our brain? I'm not talking about bad memories here, not today. I'm just talking about the good ones, the kind that can be replayed over and over in your head, the kind that can take you to a better place when you're feeling fed up.
What amazes me is that there seems to be no limit to how many memories any one brain can hold. The popular image of a memory is that of a filing cabinet, where each memory is stored away in some kind of sensible order. That's how I like to think about mine anyway and it will come as no surprise to my blog friends that a lot of my memories appear to be filed away under the heading of 'pop songs'. It's not only music that can bring memories to life, though. Smells, tastes, even colours can be evocative of times past.

I remember from my GCE Biology (yes, they were called GCEs in those days before GCSEs had been invented!) ...I remember that memories are stored in the hippocampus but that doesn't help me to understand how it works because the hippocampus is a very small part of the brain. How do all the memories fit in? I also remember learning that the average brain weighs about 3 lbs and 80% of that is made up of water. Mum helped me to revise Biology and we did it so well that a lot of this stuff is still stored in my memory. Why is it not overflowing?

What's more, our memories can be 'jogged'. Go to a reunion or meet up with an old friend and a whole file full of memories can be reopened. You start thinking about things you did all those years ago, things that you'd almost forgotten about, but now the memory has been 'jogged', they're as vivid as if they happened yesterday.

Of course, the bad news is that our memories can start to lose their 'search facility' as we get older. That old chestnut of walking into a room and forgetting why you're there happens to most of us and it's apparently because by the time we reach 50 the connections between neurons in our brains are starting to show their age.

I'm not sure how scientifically effective it is but I'm doing my best to keep my brain active in the hope that it will maintain its full search facility functions for as long as possible. I play Bridge at least once a week and I play word games and do crosswords every day, although the Guardian cryptic crossword is much tougher these days than it used to be - humour me! It is tougher, isn't it?!

Monday, 13 October 2014

We've Been Visiting Schools
For the last few weeks Richard III has been escorting me into local schools. I've been mainly talking to Year 4 and 5 classes (ages 9 to 11). My publisher, Lynn Moore from The Reading Shop has been coming with me too. We have an excellent partnership. I talk about The Children's Book of Richard III and she sells it.

Every school is different. Some have the children waiting in rows with pre-prepared questions. Others just slot me into their busy schedule.

Every class of children is different too. They each want to know about different aspects of the book. Today's children were really fascinated by the Princes in the Tower. Last week the children were more interested in the fact that Richard's body had been found beneath a Leicester City car park. The week before, I was quizzed about how I'd written the book and how it had been produced.

The children's questions are fascinating and funny in equal measure. Last week I was asked if I remember when Richard III was alive! The teacher assured me she would do some more work on maths awareness. This week I was asked if I personally believed Richard III to be a good or a bad King. Good question. I sat on the fence, as I have done in the book, but then admitted that, because I'd spent so much time writing about him, I had become really fond of him and was prepared to believe that all the bad press had come from Henry VII and the Tudors.

This was me this afternoon at a small village school just outside Leicester:

I'm pleased to say that the children do have one thing in common, they all want to buy a book.

If you'd like to buy a copy then please visit The Reading Shop website or if you're in the Leicester area then why not pop into the shop and support a local children's independent bookshop. It's on The Parade in Oadby.

Wednesday, 8 October 2014

We all use them, those clichés that help us to 'let off steam' but what do they actually mean? Here are just a few examples.

Good Grief! How can grief ever be good? It makes no sense to me.

Good Lord! There are, no doubt, many Lords who are, indeed, good, but why do we have to shout out about their goodness when we're exasperated?

Gordon Bennet! Most people are aware that he was once a politician and I can understand why people might want to exclaim a politician's name when they feel exasperated but we could at least use a more up-to-date example. I can think of a few politicians from recent times who deserve this accolade but I won't name names.

Stone the crows! I like this one. It's not because I would ever stone a crow. They may be large, raucous birds but I wouldn't ever hurt one. It's because I imagine myself doffing a flat cap whilst saying it and adding, 'Cor blimey, Guvnor!'

Modern ones are every bit as exasperating as the older, well-worn examples above:

OMG or as Daughter tweeted the other day, OMGeeeeee. I suspect it was tweeted with a degree of irony, but even so!

Thursday, 2 October 2014

My poems are often a tad light and fluffy but I thought I'd share this piece of free-verse with you. I'm always a bit wary of free-style poetry. I'm not good at writing without rules, so please don't be too judgemental. It's my offering for this year's National Poetry Day:

Rosalind Adam

I am a writer, committed worrier and nostalgia obsessive with a fascination for all things historical. I am enjoying my second year of an MA in Creative Writing at Leicester University and don't know how I'll manage without it. Please scroll down to see my books...

The Children's Book of Richard III

This is my latest book, illustrated by Alice Povey. Click on the picture to buy a copy or go to Amazon.

Children's History of Leicester

A Children's History of Leicester published by Hometown World Publishers, 2011

Bathtime Rap

Bathtime Rap is a fun children's picture book published by Franklin Watts, 2008.

Building a Community

A history of the Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation

Heritage Funded Projects

I was lead facilitator on the following two Heritage Lottery funded projects:

Leicester Jewish Voices

In 2009 I coordinated a memories project looking at the Leicester Jewish Community during the 1950s and 60s. You can see the website by clicking on the picture.

Local Cemetery Project

I coordinated the cataloguing of the Jewish section of Leicester Gilroes to provide a genealogical search facility. Subsequent research of a number of the headstones enabled us to record 'The Lives Behind the Stones'. 2014/15